Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning [url=http://www.tampabaylightning.com/tbl/prdetail.cfm?pressreleaseID=1411&category=2]have re-signed winger Dimitry Afanasenkov to a one-year deal worth about $738,000.[/url] The one-year deal is Afanasenkov's qualifying offer. The Lightning will likely start with Afansenkov on a scoring line this season after the departure of Fredrik Modin in the Marc Denis trade.

The NHL has released its regular season schedule and the Lightning [url=http://www.nhl.com/teams/tbl/schedule.html]will be opening October 5th on the road in Atlanta.[/url] The unbalanced schedule features a very Southeast Division heavy first month to the season which will include three matchups with defending champion Carolina and two matchups each with Atlanta and Florida as well as a game against Washington.
The AHL's schedule is yet to be set, but the Springfield Falcons [url=http://www.falconsahl.com/detpages/pressbox3009.shtml]have already announced their home opener will take place October 20th.[/url]

The Tampa Bay Lightning [url=http://www.tampabaylightning.com/tbl/prdetail.cfm?pressreleaseID=1408]have signed veteran defenseman Luke Richardson to a one-year $500,000 deal.[/url] Barring perhaps the trade of veteran netminder Sean Burke, Richardson appears to be the final piece in the Lightning's offseason makeover. The 37 year old blueliner has played 1,312 regular season games in his long NHL career. Last year he appeared in 65 games between Columbus and Toronto notching 1 goal and 10 points and logging 16:40 a game in ice time.

Just checked out TSN for the current salary status of the Bolts after the Feds signing. Using 450k for those listed as undisclosed including Janik at 475k if he along with Alexeev, Delmore and Karlsson bring the Bolts to just under the 40mil number. That leaves Dmitry Afanasenkov, Evgeni Artyukhin, Ryan Craig, and Cory Sarich to be signed with the remaining 4mil. This assumes the team uses Burke as the backup, who chews up 1.6mil of cap space. He has a no trade contract so any trade will need to be negotiated. My guess is they buyout the contract and send him home which would save about 400k which they can use to ink Johan Holmqvist who they would prefer to be their backup at this time. I don't know if Johan would play for the 450k or would he accept a two way contract? There could be an eligibility issue with the two way contract, Pete do you know?

The Springfield Falcons are reporting the Lightning have signed former Buffalo Sabres defenseman Doug Janik to a two-way contract. Janik scored Buffalo's first goal in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals vs. Carolina and logged more than 16 minutes of ice time.
The Falcons Press release, quoting Tampa GM Jay Feaster, stated: